James Ingram
(February 16, 1952 – January 29, 2019) was an American singer, songwriter, instrumentalist
and record producer. He was also a multi Grammy nominated artist, a two-time
Grammy Award-winner and a two-time Oscar nominee for the Best Original Song.

He began his
career in 1973, and since then James Ingram had charted eight Top 40 hits on
the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as thirteen top 40 hits on the Hot
R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. He also charted 20 hits on the Adult Contemporary
chart (including two number-ones). He also had two number-one singles on the
Hot 100, the first was a duet with fellow R&B artist Patti Austin,
“Baby, Come to Me” which topped the U.S. pop chart in 1983, the
second was “I Don’t Have the Heart”, which was number-one in 1990 and
his only number-one as a solo artist. In between these hits, he also recorded
the song “Somewhere Out There” with Linda Ronstadt for the cartoon
film An American Tail. The song and the music video both became huge hits.
Ingram co-wrote “The Day I Fall in Love”, from the film Beethoven’s
2nd (1993), and singer Patty Smyth’s “Look What Love Has Done”, from
the film Junior (1994), which earned him nominations for Best Original Song
from the Oscars, Golden Globes, and Grammy Awards in 1994 and 1995.

James Edward
Ingram was born in Akron, Ohio, and attended Akron’s East High School and the
University of Akron.

Ingram was a promising enough athlete and was offered a track scholarship but he opted for music. At 18 year old he joined the Akron band Revelation Funk, whose achievements included playing as opening act for the Ohio Players, and in 1973 Ingram travelled with them to Los Angeles in search of greater career opportunities. Although they recorded the song “Time Is on Our Side” for the “Blaxploitation” film “Dolemite” (1975), the band were not making enough money in LA and returned to Ohio, but Ingram decided to stay in LA and follow his dream.

He later
played keyboards for the legend Ray Charles before becoming famous in his own
right. Meanwhile, his younger brother, Phillip, also became famous as a member
of the Motown group Switch.

James Ingram
sang the vocals to “Just Once” and “One Hundred Ways” on
Quincy Jones’s classic 1981 album The Dude, which earned Ingram triple Grammy
nominations and won Best New Artist. “One Hundred Ways” won him the
Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. On December 11, 1981, Ingram
appeared as a guest on the Canadian comedy series SCTV (which was shown on NBC
in the US), singing “Just Once”. “It’s Your Night” was Ingram’s debut
album and was released in 1983, including the ballad “There’s No Easy
Way”. He worked with a lot of other legendary recording artists including
Donna Summer, Ray Charles, Anita Baker, Viktor Lazlo, Nancy Wilson, Natalie
Cole, and Kenny Rogers. In October 1990, he scored a No. 1 hit on the Billboard
Hot 100 with the love ballad “I Don’t Have the Heart”, from his “It’s
Real” album.

In 1984, James
Ingram was nominated for three Grammys, for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
with Vocals for “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?” (his second duet
with Patti Austin), for Best R&B Song for the US Top 10 single,
“P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” which Ingram and Quincy Jones co-wrote for
the one and only Michael Jackson, and for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for
the track “Party Animal”. In early 1985, he was again triple nominated,
for his debut album (It’s Your Night) for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance,
and its single, “Yah Mo B There” (a duet with fellow R&B musician
Michael McDonald), for Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance by a Duo
or Group, and won the latter.

Ingram is
probably best known by most people for his hit collaborations with other
vocalists. He scored a No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 chart in February 1983 with
Patti Austin on the duet “Baby, Come to Me”, a song made popular on
TV’s General Hospital. A second Austin–Ingram duet, “How Do You Keep the
Music Playing?”, was featured in the movie Best Friends (1982) and earned
an Oscar nomination. In 1984, he teamed up with Kenny Rogers and Kim Carnes for
the Top 40 ballad “What About Me?”. In 1985, Ingram won a Grammy
Award for “Yah Mo B There”, a duet with Michael McDonald, and also participated
in the charity single “We Are the World”.

James Ingram
teamed with Linda Ronstadt and had a top ten hit in the U.S. and the U.K. in
1987 with “Somewhere Out There”, the theme from the animated feature
film “An American Tail”. The song was awarded the Grammy Award for Song of the
Year, and also was also nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. It
was also one of the last million-selling Gold-certified 45 RPM singles to be
issued by the Recording Industry Association of America.

In the
1990s, James Ingram’s highest-profile team-up came with Quincy Jones, on the
song “The Secret Garden” which also featured vocals by Barry White,
El Debarge, and Al B. Sure! Soundtrack songs were very popular for Ingram in
the 1990s. From the movie Sarafina, came
“One More Time”, and from City Slickers came “Where Did My Heart
Go?”. In 1991, he and Melissa Manchester performed the song “The
Brightest Star” in the animated Christmas film “Precious Moments – Timmy’s
Gift”. In 1993, they performed the song again in the film’s sequel “Precious
Moments – Timmy’s Special Delivery”. Ingram’s 1994 composition “The Day I
Fall in Love”, on which he dueted with Dolly Parton, was the theme song
for the movie “Beethoven’s 2nd” and was nominated for the Best Original
Song Academy Award. Ingram and Parton performed the song live on the Oscar
broadcast. In 1997, Ingram and Carnie Wilson co-wrote the song “Our Time
Has Come” which was featured on the animated film “Cats Don’t Dance”.

There were fifteen
years between the release of Ingram’s fourth album, “Always You” in 1993, and
his 2008 gospel album “Stand (In the Light)”.

During the
summer of 2004, Ingram participated in the U.S. television reality show
Celebrity Duets as a duet partner. The show combined professional vocalists, of
various musical genres, with entertainers of different backgrounds in a weekly
elimination competition. In 2006, Ingram and neo-soul singer Angie Stone teamed
up on “My People”. In 2011, Ingram joined Sir Cliff Richard’s list of
special guest performers on his Soulicious Tour performing at various UK venues
during November. He sang two songs from the album with Richard, as well a solo
of “Just Once”. In 2012, Ingram appeared as himself in the ABC
television show Suburgatory, in the episode “The Motherload”. Also in
2012, he was a guest vocalist at Debbie Allen’s October 13 live show at the
corner of Crenshaw Blvd. and Martin Luther King Blvd. celebrating the arrival
of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, singing R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can
Fly”.

James Ingram died from brain cancer, aged 66, on January 29, 2019, at his home in Los Angeles. He is survived by his wife, Debbie, whom he married in 1975, and their six children.